It was a chilly winter morning in 2004. The scene was Stanley, Idaho — a city with a population of 101 and a current temperature of negative 17. My boyfriend, who had lured me here from London, England, handed me a bright red envelope and asked if I could drop it in the mailbox on my way into town.
“What’s Netflix?” I asked, peering at the white letters printed on the side. “It’s DVD by mail,” he said. “They send you movies in the mail. You send them back when you’re done. Then, they send you another one.” It was a revelation.
While Netflix had been growing in the US since its launch in 1998, it wouldn’t cross the pond for another eight years. For the rest of the world, movie night in 2004 still meant a pilgrimage to the video store. As…